Fascist Italy possessed, in theory, a powerful navy in the first phase of the Second World War, capable of facing the corresponding French or British Mediterranean Fleet alone, in cooperation with the Italian air force that would launch from the “ unsinkable aircraft carriers", Sicily and Sardinia.
The tip of the spear of the Royal Italian Navy in 1940 were the four old-build, but completely modernized, battleships of the Duglio (Caio Duglio and Andrea Doria) and Cavour (Codi di Cavour and Giulio Cesare) classes. These four vessels were of similar construction and originally carried 13 12in guns. After the modernization they were fitted with 10 320mm guns. in two triple and two twin towers. Also their maximum speed had increased to 26 knots in the first two and 27 knots in the second pair. They were displacing over 29,000 tons.
The vessels therefore had the advantage in speed of the older British battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet, they were behind the two French Dunkirk-class ships in speed, but they were dramatically inferior in armour. The Italian ships also lagged behind the older British battleships in caliber of main guns.
Duilio and Doria carried 12.6in, (320 mm) M1936 guns, while Cesare and Cavour carried M1934 guns of the same caliber. The guns did not differ dramatically and fired a projectile weighing 525 kg while their maximum range was 30 km. The French Dunkerque could achieve with their 330 mm guns. maximum range of over 40 km.
Finally, the British Queen Elizabeth-class battleships that were the main opponents of the Italian ships carried 15in (381mm) guns that had almost the same range as the Italian guns but launched a projectile weighing 879 kg.
The Italian battleship Andrea Doria.